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This is the de facto complaint of open source software, and initially I thought the entitlement can really only be explained by laziness, after all why don't pe

This is the de facto complaint of open source software, and initially I thought the entitlement can really only be explained by laziness, after all why don't people just bother to read the source code and contribute the feature they want? But then I realized its way way more rudimentary than that. A substantial amount of software developers struggle w/ interpersonal communication skills, and so often what may have been intended as a polite feature suggestion came across as entitlement, if not bewilderment that a feature doesn't exist through a poor choice of words combined with a lack of empathy that we see everywhere throughout the internet anyway.

danans 6y ago
> why don't people just bother to read the source code and contribute the feature they want? It is a bit far fetched to expect non programmer users to read the source code, much less contribute the feature (i.e. from requirements gathering to feasibility analysis, to design, implementation, testing, and release) isn't it? That is the kind of work that only a compensated team would do, especially and something as complex as an office productivity suite. In other nonprofit areas, your organizations doing work rely on charitable contributions from donors who share the same interests. Until such a time that such donors exist, it's hard to see how the development model is funded. > A substantial amount of software developers struggle w/ interpersonal communication skills, and so often what may have been intended as a polite feature suggestion came across as entitlement They might have interpersonal issues, but it seems like the deeper issue here is more with the incentive model, not with the developers' personality traits.
- sergeykish 6y ago
  So you say most of the users can't utilize freedom to change program. Neither coding, not testing, not money, not individually, not collectively. In other words - they take someones else work for free and give nothing back. And then they complain about quality.

danans 6y ago

> why don't people just bother to read the source code and contribute the feature they want? It is a bit far fetched to expect non programmer users to read the source code, much less contribute the feature (i.e. from requirements gathering to feasibility analysis, to design, implementation, testing, and release) isn't it? That is the kind of work that only a compensated team would do, especially and something as complex as an office productivity suite. In other nonprofit areas, your organizations doing work rely on charitable contributions from donors who share the same interests. Until such a time that such donors exist, it's hard to see how the development model is funded. > A substantial amount of software developers struggle w/ interpersonal communication skills, and so often what may have been intended as a polite feature suggestion came across as entitlement They might have interpersonal issues, but it seems like the deeper issue here is more with the incentive model, not with the developers' personality traits.

sergeykish 6y ago
So you say most of the users can't utilize freedom to change program. Neither coding, not testing, not money, not individually, not collectively. In other words - they take someones else work for free and give nothing back. And then they complain about quality.